Zürich to Bangkok on SWISS First Class
Even though my boarding pass said that boarding was scheduled for 17:45 local time (a very generous 10 minutes before departure), I made my way to the gate approximately 40 minutes before the scheduled departure time. Obviously, they print those very late boarding times on first class boarding passes only, as the gate area was already quite full when I arrived there.
Somehow, it seemed to be "new plane day", as the Boeing 777 waiting for us at the gate was SWISS' latest one which had only been delivered 6 or 8 weeks before.
Shortly after I had arrived at the gate, our flight was called, asking the usual priority guests (first, business, and StarAlliance Gold members) to board first. When everybody rushed towards the gate, I joined the queue after the first few impatient others had boarded.
The Flight
Flight: LX180
From: ZRH/LSZH
To: BKK/VTBS
Aircraft Type: Boeing 777-300ER
Registration: HB-JNI
STD: 17:55
STA: 10:35
Upon entering the plane, I presented my boarding pass saying "TWO KILO", and the flight attendant welcoming everybody told me where to find my seat (it's funny that they try to explain the way to the seat to someone announcing their seat with those words, on the Lufthansa flight, the reaction was "oh, well, then you probably know where you're going", but in reality, I don't mind). I was quite surprised to find that every other first class passenger (and the cabin was going to be completely full on that flight) had already boarded, despite the late published boarding time. Obviously, nobody takes this for real.
A water bottle and the amenity kit were already waiting at my seat, and shortly after I had settled in, a flight attendant came over to ask whether I would like slippers and pyjamas, and what size (even though I think it might be difficult for someone who takes LX F for the first time to correctly announce the pyjama size they need).
Due to the heavy load, the cabin was quite busy, and it took a while until somebody came over to offer me a welcome drink. I chose a glass of champagne, which was promptly delivered along with some herbed nuts. On my other LX F flights, they would usually serve an amuse bouche along with the welcome drink, and I feared they might have "enhanced" the amuse in favor of the nuts, which were ok, but didn't really match my taste.
Every seat on the 777 features three windows which feature a double-layer window shade (a transparent one and a completely opaque one) if you want to keep the sun or any light out. While it looks quite stylish, there's actually the downside of not being able to, for example, only lower the shade on the window where the sun is shining in and blinding you. Instead, you'll have to cut off any view to the outside world.
The 777 cabin on SWISS does not have overhead bins over the center seats while the cabin doesn't feel as spacious as it could, because the flight deck crew rest is located over the first row, considerably lowering the ceiling in that part of the cabin.
At some point, the welcome drinks were cleared and hot towels were distributed (which were desperately needed with all the dried herbs from the nuts sticking to our fingers).
After boarding was completed, menus were handed out and everybody received a personal welcome from the purser. The crew particularly pointed out that the "seafood festival" was still going on (while their other marketing channels were inconsistently calling it either "seafood special" or "seafood connoisseur experience"). I was a bit surprised, that the special was actually limited to the starter, and they didn't have any dedicated seafood main courses (except for fish, but one main with fish can always be found in their menus).
Actually, SWISS usually have one additional (traditional swiss) main course on board that is not published in the menu (and if they don't tell you it might be worth asking). Even though the seafood "festival" was going on, they explained that they were also offering fondue as the off-menu item. Even though I would really have loved to try fondue on a plane (however that might possibly work), I had already had this a few hours before in the lounge and decided to try one of the other options.
Additionally, every first class passenger received a WiFi voucher for 50 MB of free internet access, as well as a short guide on how to use the mobile phone roaming function on board the plane.
Finally, we pushed back a few minutes behind schedule. However, after being pushed back, we just stood on the taxiway for a few minutes, engines running, and nothing else happening. At some point, the captain came on the PA, telling us that there would be a slight delay, as the pushback vehicle had developed a technical fault and couldn't release the plane any more. Approximately 10 minutes (and a few sharp "bangs" from underneath the plane), the captain came on again to say that the maintenance crew hadn't been successful yet and that we still had to wait a few more minutes. Finally, they got the plane free, and we were off to the runway, where we departed with a delay of about 30 minutes.
After takeoff, the crew switched the cabin to mood lighting and started preparing dinner. While I'm not really sure whether I understand what exactly the mood lighting should be good for (they say it reduces jetlag, but I don't see much of a difference in terms of that when the light is switched on at once vs. dimmed to on during 30 seconds), the cabin atmosphere is actually quite cozy, particularly with all the different lighting options around the seat.
A few minutes later, a flight attendant came to lay my table and serve the amuse bouche that I had already missed during boarding. Obviously, the chose not to serve it on the ground this time (although I find that this is something that makes LX F special compared to most other carriers), while not having abandoned the idea at all.
What I also like about the 777 F cabin compared to the older SWISS First cabins is that you can push the table away from yourself all the way down, which makes it easy to get out of the seat during a meal (while this is technically possible on the A330, you need to squeeze through a really small gap between seat and table which makes it very probable that you'll spill your drink etc.).
On SWISS First Class, the starter is always served from a buffet trolley which is beautifully set up in the galley. Due to the seafood special, it had a very large metal bowl filled with ice an all kinds of dead sea creatures as the primary feature, while SWISS' signature balik salmon was, of course, also available. I asked the flight attendant to prepare my usual "little bit of everything":
When I had finished my plate, the flight attendant came around with the trolley again, and told me that I "needed" another helping. While I was actually not sure whether I would be able to manage all the food that was still coming, she basically said "we only have this on our menu once per year, so you really need to take another serving. Well, what can I say? While I had actually been sceptical about the quality of the seafood meal before (I mean, what kind of seafood do they grow in Switzerland? And then, it's cooked, chilled, and served on a plane), I really need to say that it exceeded my expectations by far. It was a bit too cold (but that's often a problem with seafood in Europe), but the quality of the items was top notch.
As the second course, I ordered the salad, which was too sour for my taste - unfortunately, this seems to be normal on SWISS, as most of the salads I've had from them had too much vinegar on them.
For the main course, I had ordered the fish (it was a seafood meal, after all), and while it was good, it was not outstanding. In the first picture, you can actually see one of the few drawbacks of SWISS' first class seat - it is really difficult to adjust the lighting for a meal, as your body might be throwing a shadow onto the table depending on your seat position.
As a function of having had too much of the starter, I decided to skip cheese (even though I was flying on SWISS), but ordered the dessert, as "Vacherin ice cream" just sounded too freaky to not try it - in the end, Vacherin is a relatively strong cheese, and I really wanted to try how it would do in a dessert. Actually, I have to say that it wasn't bad, even though the entire presentation and the mix of different flavours and textures were a bit over the top for my taste.
During the meal, the service became a bit chaotic, as one flight attendant from business class was obviously helping out (she was quite over the top as well and brought a considerable amount of unrest to the entire cabin). Later, I could hear the two FAs who were primarily serving the F cabin gossip about her in the galley, which is probably not the peak of professionalism.
All in all, the meal was quite good, as it usually is on SWISS. I have never really had any disappointment with their first class catering, and this flight was no exception. However, if anybody of you is a fan of really down to earth traditional cuisine, you should definitely ask for the off menu item on your next SWISS flight, as those options have been among the best food that I've ever had on a plane.
After dinner, I asked to have my bed made, and ordered a gin & tonic prepared from their relatively new "Breil Pur" signature gin, which I hadn't tried before. I have to say that the gin is "interesting", but not necessarily in a bad way. Manufactured from swiss herbs, it's just not what you usually expect from a gin. Actually, it tasted a bit like a blend between a traditional gin and Fernet Branca herb liqueur (particularly due to the clearly detectable taste of liquorice and mint), and it's definitely worth a try, though probably not everybody's cup of tea, pardon, glass of gin.
I slept practically all the way to Bangkok and woke up approximately one hour prior to landing. When the FA asked me whether I would like to have breakfast, I declined and only ordered a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee (there's a coice between traditional filter coffee and Nespresso) which I had while still in bed.
Within no time, I needed to change from my pyjamas back into my street clothes, and we landed roughly on time in a warm and cloudy Bangkok.
Upon leaving the plane, we were greeted by quite an array of pick-up people holding up signs with different names on them. While I needed to make my connection onto MH (and would have had to pick up a lounge invitation from their transfer counter), I didn't really know whether the "Personal Assistant" service that the Lufthansa Group airlines offer at most of their outstations to their first class passengers would be able to help me (usually, they are there to escort you to immigration and baggage claim and hand out fast track cards). Anyway, I approached the young woman who was holding up a sign with several names (mine was among them) and told her that I needed to connect. She asked me to wait for a few moments and "to take a seat" - however, I didn't see anything to sit on, so I just stood to the side.
A few seconds later, she handed the sign to her colleague, came over to me, and asked me once again to "take a seat". There were actually a few golf carts parked near the gate, and when she got into the drivers seat of one of them, I took a seat on the back seat of the cart.
During the ride, I felt extremely embarrassed, as I was sitting there in plain view while she drove me across the terminal, radically honking at any person or group that was blocking our way. I received quite a few half angry half curious stares from other people in the concourse and wished I had made my own way across the concourse.
Verdict
Particularly due to their very good offers in first class, I have recently flown SWISS (which is my primary airline for shorthauls within Europe) quite a few times intercontinentally, and I have never really been disappointed. Even though I don't find the seats to be too comfortable in upright mode, I like both their 777 and A330 cabins in first class (while I'm absolutely no fan of the old A340 cabin which I got to try a few times when they replaced an A320 for an A340 on a shorthaul), and the food was also always very good to excellent. Their amenities are very high quality, and their amenity kit is probably the most expensive of them all if you take the retail value of the items contained therein (the four small La Prairie tubes would already retail at more than 70 CHF). The only observable difference between all those flights was actually the crew, which don't seem to be consistently excellent. On this flight, the crew were slightly above average, but I've had some of the best FAs you can possibly imagine on other SWISS flights.
The seafood thing (and probably the other three special food presentations throughout the year) are a nice gimmick, but I would say that it is overrated. It really seems more like a marketing gag than something to actually make a difference to the passengers, particularly as you cannot really plan your flight ahead due to the inconsistent timeframe which is not published until two weeks out.
Nevertheless, SWISS is definitely in the first half of the ranking when it comes to their first class product, and if the price is right, I would never hesitate to fly them again.